Just because his first mission is completed doesn’t mean the battle with Perry Steed is over. In May 2022, the former Army paratrooper set off on his first Ride for Light, traveling across 48 states on his BMW R 1200 GS and carrying his brothers’ ashes in his arms. His goal is to raise awareness about the issue of veteran suicide. Two years later, Steed took part in the Ride for the Light a second time, but this time, he took it to the next level, taking the show on the road – or rather, taking the road into a perform.
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Ride for Light in 2024 will remain under the banner of Activity: Purpose, a 501(c)(3) that Steed founded to foster and nurture the veteran community in Wilmington, North Carolina, which has a large military population. The trip itself, however, speaks to the growing epidemic of veteran suicide. And this time, Steed won’t be riding alone.
“We’re a mixed group this year,” he told me. “I had a friend who fought with me growing up. He and I both joined the army just a few days apart. We had the same job, went through basic training and AIT (advanced individual training) together and were at Fort Bragg together.”
Steed said Bruce Knobloch came to see him the night Steed’s oldest child was born, but then the two men lost track of each other for nearly 19 years until reconnecting this past summer.
Knobloch has been a motorcycle enthusiast for 20 years. When the two met after all these years and talked about the 2022 Ride for Light, Knobloch told Steed he would have gone along if he had known about it.
“I told him, ‘Oh, I did it again.’”
The other addition to the crew is cinematographer Jason Conyers.
“When I returned from my 2022 trip, I joined the American Legion and became a Legion Horseman because they really showed up and supported me,” Steed said, adding that one of the Army Horsemen The crew he met was Conyers, who was out of the group. Navy and has a degree in film studies. “I was telling him what I wanted to do, and he said, ‘Well, I’ll go with you and I’ll record the whole thing.’”
Steed tapped some of his other resources, including a film studies professor at the University of Colorado and an artistic director for North Carolina PBS, who told him that once a documentary was broadcast on a PBS station, other states pick it up.
“Of course, I had to be censored a little bit,” Steed said. “I can’t let it fly, but it’s okay.”
Ride for Light 2024 begins to take shape. There was just one glitch. During the 2022 Ride for Light, Steed had several opportunities to ride his GS off-road. This is something he wants to do even more for the 2024 trip. When it comes to Knobloch, Steed said if there was someone in the high school yearbook with the caption “Least Likely to Own a Harley-Davidson ” then it would be Knobloch, however that is all he has owned since then. He recently traded in a CVO Street Glide for a Pan America.
However, Conyers had a Low Rider.
“I told him, ‘You’re not going with me on that bike.’”
Not knowing what to do, Steed called a guy he met through the restoration work Steed had done on a 1961 BMW R50S. He told Steed to “consider me a friend” and gave him some great advice. joint.
“I need someone who’s not close to me so I can handle this shit, because everything I say, everyone says ‘Yeah, man, that’s a great idea.’ I know not all of my ideas are great and I need someone who can tell me, ‘This is stupid’.”
During a phone call with Sean Slovenski, Steed explained the Campaign: Purpose and Ride for Light, and as luck would have it, Slovenski donated two bikes: a new 2010 BMW R 1200 GS 15,000 miles and a 2009 RT BMW R 1200.
“He said, ‘Do whatever you want with the bikes,'” Steed said, adding that Slovenski realized that the RT wasn’t necessarily right for the ride. Slovenski told Steed that he could sell it to fund the trip and Conyers could drive the GS.
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With the bikes lined up, the trio set a launch date of May 18 from Beaufort, South Carolina, after they attended an event with FOB Patriotic Campaigna support group for veterans and first responders.
Steed told me about their plans for the trip with a sense of both excitement and reverence for the places they would go and visit.
They will start with the South Carolina Adventure Route – or SCAR.
“We’ll take part of it from Beaufort to Suches, Georgia, and then we’ll go upstream through Tennessee and Kentucky to Louisville,” he said, adding that the good thing about SCAR for those There isn’t a lot of off-road driving experience like Conyers as it’s mostly just two-lane roads. “There’s a little dirt and gravel, but nothing crazy.”
However, he said the really interesting part will be the BLM lands out west.
“You know, actually getting off the beaten path, going where there’s no light, no light pollution, and it’s just us out there. Three boys, chatting and sleeping under the stars.”
As for plans on the road, Steed said they plan to visit a variety of locations, from a veterans cemetery to a lecture at an American Legion nursing home in Minnesota to the location of a large plot of land being turned into a veteran. the withdrawal of a family who lost their son to suicide.
As with the first trip, they will carry the ashes of veterans.
“There’s a really terrible statistic I want to give you that will blow your mind,” Steed told me. “There are more than 3,000 unclaimed veteran remains each year. A lot of them – often Vietnam vets – no matter what happens, when they die, no one can find their relatives.”
Steed said there is a non-profit organization in Wilmington called Veterans Memorial Reef will take the ashes and bury them in an artificial reef five miles offshore.
“I told them I would pick up whatever I could carry on the trip. So I will leave room on my bike for that.”
But as Steed said in 2022, this is not a trip about death. It’s a trip of a lifetime, so along the way, they will “friend check” with as many other veterans as possible, spreading hope, love and friendship.
That was the most important aspect of the trip, and Steed said even if they weren’t making a documentary, he just wanted to get these two guys on the road.
When I first connected with Steed in 2022, he had been gone for several months and had stopped in Mexican Hat, a small town in southeastern Utah, a favorite of his father-in-law, an important figure. important in Steed’s life. .
This time when I called him to talk about Ride for Light 2024, he said that just the night before, he mentally replayed the conversation we had nearly two years ago.
“I was thinking about where I was. I see constant reminders when I’m at the office, these little mementos from my travels, and I remember exactly where I was.”
Steed says Conyers is lucky that he’s done some cross-country trips – but not Knobloch.
“Every veteran needs to see and experience what they fought to preserve,” he said. “I need to get these people off the streets… and get myself back out there.”
To learn more about Ride for Light 2024 or to donate to the cause, visit Activities: Website purpose or follow Facebook.
Resources:
If you or someone you know is in danger of suicidal thoughts or actions, call 911 immediately. Suicide is an emergency that requires the help of trained medical professionals and should always be treated seriously.
National suicide hotlines, 1-800-SUICIDE (1-800-784-2433) and 1-800-273-TALK (8255), have counselors available 24/7. Other resources included suicide.orgthe American Foundation for Suicide Preventionand American Association of Suicidology. All provide comprehensive information and support on suicide, from prevention and treatment to coping with loss.
